After wandering the floor for a few hours, Emily, Ben and I walked by the Norton booth and saw that Nicole Krauss had a new book coming out: Great House. The three of us adored The History of Love so we were psyched just to have that knowledge. Then I spotted copies of the book. They weren’t really out for grabs but Emily went in search of a Norton rep and snagged us some copies.

Later that day we were (again) wandering and we stumbled upon a line of people and overheard the words “Sara Gruen.” The three of us also adored Water for Elephants so we went in search of the back of the line. We got to meet Sara Gruen and get copies of her new book, Ape House.

And finally, we saw that Justin Cronin was signing at 4pm. I know The Passage comes out on Tuesday and I wouldn’t have long to wait to buy it, but I’ve been jealously watching everyone else read this so meeting him and getting a copy of his book was a nice surprise (I thought I had already missed him).

I have more to say about BEA itself, but I wanted to share the books I’m most anxious to read and review. Which one should I read first?

Ooh! I say read the one that comes out first, unless there is just one you really feel like you just HAVE to read, lol.

I really didn’t talk to any of the publcists at all… maybe I’ll focus more on that next year. That’s cool you guys got the new book by Nicole Krauss. I didn’t know she wrote anything new, but I loved The History of Love too! And I tried to rush over to Sara Gruen when I saw your tweet but I didn’t make it in time. =/ And you saw what happened with The Passage… I was too tired to stand in that line, lol!! Looking forward to your reviews!!

My biggest disappointment of BEA was *not* snagging a copy of APE HOUSE, although I think that Margie might have ended up with an extra one. I’d say read them in publication order – or just close your eyes, wave your hand around, and choose!

I’ve heard so much about Nicole Kraus (and am in love with her husband, fellow author Jonathan Safran Foer!) and almost picked up The History Of Love in New York last week. I’ll be very interested to hear what you have to say about her latest!

And Water For Elephants is in the back of my car, where it’s been for several months. Everyone raves about it — and Sara Gruen — so I’m sure her latest will be interesting!